The present invention generally relates to bodily fluid sampling devices and more specifically, but not exclusively, concerns a dispenser system for dispensing test elements that test biological fluid.
The acquisition and testing of bodily fluids is useful for many purposes and continues to grow in importance for use in medical diagnosis and treatment, such as for diabetes, and in other diverse applications. In the medical field, it is desirable for lay operators to perform tests routinely, quickly, and reproducibly outside of a laboratory setting, with rapid results and a readout of the resulting test information. Testing can be performed on various bodily fluids and, for certain applications, is particularly related to the testing of blood and/or interstitial fluid. Performing home-based testing can be difficult for many patients, especially for patients with limited hand dexterity, such as the elderly or diabetics. For example, diabetics can sometimes experience numbness or tingling in their extremities, such as their hands, which can make self-testing difficult because they are unable to accurately position a test strip to collect the blood sample. In addition, wounds for diabetics tend to heal more slowly, and as a result, there is a desire to make incisions less invasive.
Recently, lancet integrated test strips or elements have been developed in which a test strip is integrated with a lancet or other piercing means so as to form a single disposable unit. While these integrated units have somewhat simplified the collection and testing of fluid samples, there are still a number of issues that need to be resolved before a commercial unit can be implemented. One issue concerns maintaining the sterility of the lancet prior to use so as to minimize the risk of infection. Another issue concerns the disposal of used units after use. Once used, the integrated units become a biohazard that need to be disposed of in a safe manner. A number of different types of systems have been proposed for dispensing test strips, lancets, or some combination thereof, but most of these systems have significant drawbacks.
Multiple use test systems like drums, discs, and reel-to-reel tapes have been developed to house multiple test strips, but these systems fail to address a number of issues. For example, reel-to-reel cassette systems typically bend a tape of lancet integrated test elements during dispensing, which can result in damage to the lancet and/or the test strip. Other cassette or cartridges are bulky in nature, which makes them commercially impractical for household or other routine use. Still yet other systems require the use of a complicated indexing mechanism, which tends to make the systems have an unsuitable reliability due to jamming and/or other complications. Typically, such systems also require specially designed test elements that are not configured for current single use test strips. Drum transport systems have been proposed for transporting test strips from a magazine, but such drum transport systems have failed to satisfactorily address the disposal issue regarding the used test strips.
With portable meters, such as portable blood glucose meters, small meter sizes and ease of handling are desirable features. Most users would prefer smaller meters that are able to discretely fit inside a pocket or a purse so that the user is able to perform testing in any situation, such as in a restaurant bathroom or when traveling. One factor affecting size of meters that handle multiple test strips is storage compartment sizes. In previous designs, the storage compartments tended to be rather large and bulky because test elements were stored in a disorderly fashion.
Thus, needs remain for further contributions in this area of technology.